2 March 2022 – Ash Wednesday Chapel

GATHERING MUSIC

“Chorale Prelude on O Mensch, bewein dein sunde groß” – JS Bach

Mark Miller, organ

CALL TO WORSHIP

Jesse Dicken

“Come Come Whoever You Are” – Rumi

“Come, come, whoever you are,
wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving,
it doesn’t matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times.
Come, come again, come.”

SONG

“Come, Come Who ever You Are” – Rumi

UNISON OPENING PRAYER

Jesse Dicken

We have fallen short, O God. When you ask us to strive for awareness, we settle for slogans. When our hearts should be breaking, we turn away. When our eyes should overflow with tears, we turn to distractions. When you ask us to reach out to our neighbors, we retreat to comfortable places. When you ask us to be stewards, we relapse into careless consumption. Forgive us, Merciful God, Do not turn away from us. Cleanse us, Create in us clean hearts. Put a new and right spirit within us. Amen.

SCRIPTURE – Psalm 51, selected verses

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.

51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

51:4 Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.

51:6 You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.

51:8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.

51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.

51:11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.

51:12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

51:15 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

51:16 For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.

51:17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

SONG

“Dust I Am” – Mark Miller

SCRIPTURE – Isaiah 58:6-10

Yeeun Kim

58:6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?

58:7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

58:8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,

58:10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.